rogue
/ˈɹoʊɡ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.89 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A scoundrel, rascal or unprincipled, deceitful, and unreliable person.
noun
A mischievous scamp.
noun
A vagrant.
noun
Malware that deceitfully presents itself as antispyware.
noun
An aggressive animal separate from the herd, especially an elephant.
noun
A horse, mule, or donkey that is difficult to control; a refractory horse, especially a racehorse.
Australian usage
noun
A plant that shows some undesirable variation.
noun
Example Sentences
- "And meet time it was, when yon usher, vinegar-faced rogue that he is, began to inquire what popish trangam you were wearing […]"
- "He had told more lies in his time, and undergone more baseness of stratagem in order to stave off a small debt, or to swindle a poor creditor, than would have sufficed to make a fortune for a braver rogue."
- "[…] No rogue e’er felt the halter draw, with a good opinion of the law, and perhaps my own detestation of the law arises from my having frequently broken it."
- "As The Dark Knight Rises brings a close to Christopher Nolan’s staggeringly ambitious Batman trilogy, it’s worth remembering that director chose The Scarecrow as his first villain—not necessarily the most popular among the comic’s gallery of rogues, but the one who set the tone for entire series."
- "Ah, you sweet little rogue, you!"
- "An entry in the Microsoft Malware Protection Center's Threat Research & Response Blog shows that rogue AV, also known as scareware, is ruling the malware roost, as 6 top of the 10 malicious programs removed by the MSRT (Malicious Software Removal Tool) in the US in October were 'rogues'."
Etymology
Uncertain. From either: * Earlier English roger (“a begging vagabond who pretends to be a poor scholar from Oxford or Cambridge”), possibly from Latin rogō (“to ask”). * Middle French rogue (“arrogant, haughty”), from Old Northern French rogre (“aggressive”), from Old Norse hrokr (“excess, exuberance”), for which see Icelandic hroki (“arrogance”), though OED does not document this. * Celtic; see Breton rog (“haughty”).
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: rogō, rogue, rogre, hrokr
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɹoʊɡ/
- British English: /ˈɹəʊɡ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
rogues (plural)
rouge (alternative, misspelling)
more rogue (comparative)
most rogue (superlative)
rogues (present, singular)
roguing (participle, present)
rogueing (participle, present)
rogued (participle, past)
rogued (past)